


Desperate Desires and Desperate Situations

by Stumbling-While-Balancing (Rellanka)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Capture, Day Two, Death of Villain Characters, Keith (Voltron) Needs a Hug, Lion and Paladin Bonds, M/M, Referenced but non explicit torture, Reverse of the Damsel in Distress Trope, Sheith Quote Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-18 19:31:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13107018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rellanka/pseuds/Stumbling-While-Balancing
Summary: The ones he cares about need Keith, and Keith fights his way back to them.





	Desperate Desires and Desperate Situations

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Sheith Quote Week](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13104513) by [Stumbling-While-Balancing (Rellanka)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rellanka/pseuds/Stumbling-While-Balancing). 



“Your friend desperately wants to see you, did you know?” Haggar asked mockingly from where she stood beside the table he was strapped to, staring at Keith with a smug smile only barely visible from beneath her hood.

“He’s been causing us quite a bit of trouble, in fact. Him _and_ the clone. I find it… impressive that you managed to make my creation so attached to you; and though you’ll still pay dearly for helping him break free of my control, that attachment worked out for the better for me. They’re getting sloppy, frantic. Soon enough they’ll make a foolish mistake and when the do… they and the Lion’s will once again be under Galra control. Because of **you**.”

Keith jerked, gritting his teeth and trying with everything he was to break free of his bonds, even with his previous failed attempts, wanting more than anything to tear Haggar’s throat out; with his teeth, if necessary.

She merely smiled and signaled the Druids to begin again.

And all Keith knew was pain.

***

Keith was floating in a dark, endless ocean. There was no pain here, or fear, or thought. Just… a peaceful nothingness that lulled him into a false serenity. He was safe.

Here, he was safe.

A low growl, at first sounding far away but then growing closer caused him to start focusing. Red? Was that Red? There were two growls now, and Keith was gaining some of his ability to feel back. There was pain, so much pain, but it was distant, not able to touch him. Closer was the feeling of a surface beneath him. Not a floor or ground, not quite as solid as that. But something that was far more solid than anything he had been near before.

And there was some kind of light.

He pushed himself to his side and saw the Red and Black Lion’s. Light came from somewhere near them, and Keith could see them clearly.

Red was lashing his tail as he stood, tensed, ready to take off at any moment. Black was sitting more placidly, but Keith could feel the deep anger burning within him.

 _You can’t give up._ Black sent, the feeling closer to words than most of the information the Lion’s had shared before.

 _You can’t give up._ Red agreed, furious and determined and scolding and loving in the way only the Red Lion could be.

 _You can’t give up._ Something else said, something… Keith realized he was standing now and he looked down at his hands. The Blade was resting within his right hand, and he could see it clearly, too. _They will help you. I will help you. You can’t give up._

 _But I-_ Keith thought, grimacing at the thought of what he was going back to. In his visits with the Druids, they had taken his leg, and his eye, and who knows what else since he had fallen unconscious this time. Keith didn’t know what they had done to him. If they had invaded his mind, and how deep they had gotten into it. If they had managed to place him under the same control they had trapped Kuro in, until he broke free.

If it was safe for him to be around the team.

_Maybe it would be better for everyone if I-_

A unanimous, simultaneous rejection of the thought cut Keith off before he had a chance to finish it.

He could feel the Lion’s, and even the Blade, pushing memories, thoughts, feelings onto him. The team, and the BOM members that he had grown close to. The moments when he had really felt that maybe this time he had a family, or at least people who cared about him. The Lion’s and the Blade themselves, who he could feel a surprisingly deep well of caring from. For him.

 _If you give up, they will lose, we will lose. You. You can’t give up._ The Red Lion sent, the words stilted, but their meaning clear.

The Black Lion sent him Shiro and Kuro now. But not the Shiro and Kuro that Keith had last seen. They were- they looked terrible. Like they had been put through the wringer for weeks, and been able to sleep for exactly none of them.

 _For them. For us. You can’t give up._ The Black Lion said.

Keith gritted his teeth, and bowed his head in acknowledgment.

He couldn’t give up.

***

He awoke screaming, and Haggar made a pleased sound.

“Not gone after all, then. Good. I’d hoped bringing your Blade into the room would force a reaction. Perhaps I should thank you for the opportunity to experiment on the bond between you and it; all the other traitors we managed to capture killed themselves before much data was able to be taken from them.”

Keith ignored Haggar as he lay there, panting and trying to push the pain away. He began testing his bonds. They were a little loose, surprisingly so, and Keith wiggled his hand to a better position and **called** his Blade.

 _C’mon,_ he thought desperately, _C’mon, you said you’d help me. So **help** me. C’mon._

And the Blade was in his hand and Keith was cutting through his bonds before Haggar, the Druids or the guard could react.

He didn’t wasted time. His blade was buried deep inside Haggar’s stomach almost before even he realized. He felt Red and Black in the back of his mind, and he drew strength from the Lions as well as from the last dregs of strength he had left within himself as he _pushed_ the power into the Blade, the Blade multiplying it with its own strength.

 _Let her burn._ He thought desperately as the Blade glowed white hot. _Please, let her burn._

And she did, burning hot and fast, leaving a hole in her middle that even she wouldn’t survive.

The other Druids were reacting now, and Keith **moved** managing to bring one down with a white hot swing of his Blade, while the guard… took out the second.

He paused, staring uncertainly at the guard while the Druid slumped between them, before the guard smiled wryly at him.

“May the Blade of Marmora be with us.” He said dryly, pulling his uniform out of the way just enough that Keith could see his own Blade.

“You’re the reason my bonds were lose.” Keith said, feeling as though he was being fed the information by the Blade in his hand.

“Yes.” The guard replied, “At times our Blades can direct us, guide us to where we need to be. My own directed me here, and the desire to help you came through more clearly than anything I’ve felt before. I’m glad it did. Voltron has been… acting erratically since the time of your capture dragged on, and the Blade have worried that something irreversible may happen.”

Keith frowned, his grip tightening on his Blade subconsciously. “I need to get back to them.”

The plan they came up with was simple. Keith would follow the Blade, who said his name was Kryzik when Keith asked, to the docking bay, where he would escape on one of the two ships the Blade already had prepared. Kryzik would take the other ship and use it to distract the battleship so that Keith could get far enough away that he could send out a distress signal. Either Voltron or the Blade would retrieve him, whoever got him first.

“My bet’s on Voltron.” Kryzik said, amused for some reason as Keith dressed in the Druid’s garb.

And for once, things went smoothly. Keith was relieved to see the ships that Kryzik had described waiting for them.

“What about you?” He said, hesitating slightly before getting into the ship, one last worry keeping him from taking off.

Kryzik smiled almost fondly, “I’m willing to die for the mission, kit, but I’m not looking to do so. Not today. I’ll survive somehow. I always do.”

Keith nodded, before looking at him firmly, “Look me up, next time you’re in base. From the sounds of it, we can probably share some interesting stories.”

Kryzik’s eyes danced with laughter, even if he let none of it out, “That’s for sure, from what I’ve heard about you.” His eyes practically glowed at Keith’s look, “Kolivan’s more of a gossip then he lets on. I’ll look you up- if the Paladin’s let you out of their sight long enough to let you go to the base. Especially the Black Paladin and his doppelganger.”

Before Keith could question that, Kryzik gave him a firm nudge to the ship, and Keith obediently got in.

“May the Blade of Marmora be with you.” Kryzik murmered.

“May the Blade of Marmora be with you.” Keith returned as the door slid shut.

It was time to go home.

**End**

**Author's Note:**

> _Continuation of the second day drabble of my Sheith Week collection, see day three for Shiro’s POV._
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> Yes, Keith has robotic Galra prosthetics for his eye and leg.
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> I am obsessed with Keith having an active bond with the Red and Black Lion’s, and the Lion’s being able to ‘share’ their power with their Paladins, providing the bond is deep enough and the situation calls for it.
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> I am also obsessed with Keith’s Blade being sentient, and the Blades of Marmora behaving in a similar yet different way from the Lion’s.
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> I wasn’t able to fit in that Kryzik was able to send a message to Kolivan alerting him to the fact that they should probably be on the watch for any Galra ships sending out distress signals. Kolivan shared this knowledge with team Voltron, and that’s how they knew to pick up Keith.
> 
> I have a sequel to this in my mind, but since it’ll probably be a while before I write it: Keith does get away and Voltron is the one to find him. Shiro and Kuro stick to Keith’s side like glue after he comes back, and relationship dynamics are eventually worked out. The rest I’ll save for the fic, if I just find the time to write it. *wishes there were more hours in the day*
> 
> Thanks for reading, and hope you enjoyed, guys! ~~It isn't perfect, but I did my best.~~


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